1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a wearable display device.
2. Description of the Related Art
The HMD (head-mounted display), a representative type of wearable display device, was designed to provide a pilot with aviation information such as the altitude, velocity, etc., of the aircraft. Commercial products were first developed during the 1990's, and have attracted interest after 1997 due to their popularity.
The HMD may be worn on the head like goggles and may provide the vision of a large screen showing virtual images. The display used here typically has a size of 1 inch or less, which may be magnified a hundredfold with the application of highly advanced optical technology.
With the development and commercialization of accessory devices such as the HMD, further growth is anticipated in the field of wearable computing devices. While previous efforts have focused on developing the HMD for movies or games, rapid advances in the fields of display devices and visual communication, as exemplified by the trends towards higher performance and smaller sizes in computer systems and LCD's, have led to research on wearable monitors, with some products already commercially available.
The HMD market faced many difficulties in the market for the past few years, due to relatively high prices, but the market is expected to grow dramatically in step with the trends in the wearable computer industry. The wearable HMD is expected to expand to industrial sites, logistics warehouses, maintenance sites for large-scale equipment such as cars, airplanes, and ships, etc., as well as to the field of sports entertainment, such as car racing.
In particular, developments in processor and software technology enable the miniaturization of computing devices, and as such, the HMD is expected to evolve beyond simply displaying images to becoming a personal computing device analogous to the smart phone.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a wearable display device that can operate as a computing device.
Referring to FIG. 1, a wearable display device according to the related art can include an image viewer unit 100, a connection unit 102, a main unit 120 that includes an interface unit 104 and a processor unit 106, and a frame 110.
The frame 110 may form the main body of the wearable display device and, for example, can have a structure similar to a pair of glasses, as illustrated in FIG. 1. The frame can be structured to be wearable on the user's head, and the other components of the wearable display device may be coupled onto the frame 110.
The image viewer unit 100 may serve to show images and may be positioned in front of the user's eye.
The main unit 120, composed of the interface unit 104 and the processor unit 106, may be coupled to the frame 110, for example on a support part 110c of the frame 110 for wearing on the user's ear.
The interface unit 104 may provide an interface with which the user can input a control command. The interface unit 104 can include a number of buttons and can include a flat touch pad for inputting cursor movements. By using the interface unit 104, the user can input a necessary control command, such as for playing a video clip and searching information, for example.
The processor unit 106 may control the operations of the wearable display device for use as a computing device. The user's control commands inputted through the interface unit 104 may be provided to the processor unit 106, after which the processor unit 106 may then process the user's control commands.
In a wearable display device according to the related art, such as that illustrated in FIG. 1, the image viewer unit 100 may be installed in front of the user's eyes and may thus obstruct the user's field of vision when it is not in use.
Also, in the wearable display device according to the related art, the interface unit 104 may be fixed to the frame and exposed to the exterior, forming a structure that is vulnerable to damage caused by dust and moisture, etc.
Thus, the wearable display device according to the related art, when worn for extended periods, can cause considerable discomfort due to the obstruction of vision and can be more susceptible to damage.